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Annual Sermon 



DELIVERED BY 



JOHNW.SAYERS,D.D. 




CHAPLAIN DEPARTMENT PENNA. G. A. R. 



^unday j^vening, Jyl^w 22, 1898 



PHILADELPHIA. 



Text. — " For we now see but through a glass darkly, but 
then face to face ; now i kllow in part, but then 

SHALL I KNOW EVEN AS I AM KNOWN." ISt Cor. xiii, 12. 

THE future is always veiled from us. That which is to 
come can only be conjectured from that which has 
gone before. The revelations of even,- day discloses to us 
the blighting of many hopes, the frustration of well-matured 
schemes, and the failure of almost certain expectations.. 
The ruins with which time has strewn the earth all teach 
us -the sad lessons of uncertainty, the weakness of human 
vision, the immaturity of our acquired knowledge. To-day 
seems unclouded and positi\ely clear, not only through its 
own light, but by the reffected light of yesterday ; the 
events of to-morrow will .show us that we have only seen 
through a glass darkly. Every day is but a sequel to the 
preceding day. Each morning dawns upon the world with 
a new light. It comes with its own serene beauty, while, 
through its sunbeams, play in undulating waves the lights 
and .shadows of the past. Every day is, therefore, a revela- 
tion of the meaning of yesterday. It is the key which 
solves the riddle of what has gone before. It becomes in 
our life a new chapter in the volume which contains the 
hidden prophecy of the future. 

The Apostle, in writing this Epistle, seems to have 
been reviewing his own experience. He goes back to 
earlier days, considers the unseen things which were before 
him, and say.s, " For we know in part, and prophesy in 
part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that 



4 Annual Sermon by Rev. John W. Sayers, Chaplain 

which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, 
I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a 
child ; but when I became a man I put away childish 
things." 

Go back in your own history, a little over thirty-six 
3'ears, and mark the growth and advancement in which 
you have taken a part. In an incredibly short time you 
grew from childhood to manhood in the experience of the 
soldiers. In five years, from quiet citizens, you became 
veterans, battled-scarred by the enemy, and crowned with 
honor by your country for valiant service. How quickly 
it all came; how jrapidly it passed. The thunder of the 
cannon in Charleston Harbor suddenly awakened the nation 
from its long repose and dream of peace. War had burst 
upon us in reality in defence of oppression. The North 
rose, as a unit, in its enthusiasjn to repel the unholy inva- 
sion. We would march and fight and conquer. We would 
hastily invade the South, compel peace, uphold the Con- 
stitution, and restore the Union to its former glory. The 
days came and went, and the war was prolonged. Many 
a brave comrade fell in the strife, but the strife went on. 
A hated flag was raised against the Stars and Stripes, and 
a spurious Confederacy was declared in opposition to the 
old Union. Our boys grew from youth to manhood, and, 
as the fathers fell, their sons took their places in the ranks, 
and still the war went on. The shifting scenes, with the 
developments of every day, passed before us like a swift- 
moving panorama. The day as it went by, with its stir- 
ring events, seemed clear to us, but the morrow opened 
our eyes to mistakes and misconceptions and to many 



Dept. Pennsylvania, Grand Army of the Republic 5 

things that we had not observed as they passed. Four 
years of campaigning upon American soil revolutionized 
the methods of warfare throughout the whole world. The 
old muskets of our army proved but childish things in 
the hands of a soldiery that meant to conquer. The 
great wooden vessels of our navy, once so formidable, 
were but shells and toys before even the crudely con- 
structed but more effectixe vessels which modern me- 
chanical science had created for the emergency. 

In its growing experience toward a rapid maturity the 
nation no longer thought " as a child," but " put away 
childish things." Iron-clad warships, improved guns of 
tremendous power, ammunition of wonderful eflfectiveness, 
harbor defences of higher scientific construction, new tac- 
tics in army and navy movements, with an advanced 
civilization behind them all, are clear evidences that to- 
day is not as yesterday, that the present is better than the 
past, and that it is an earnest for a still better future. 
So we grow from childhood to age. So the world grows ; 
so the nation grows — effect following cause, development 
following experience ; growth, development, and maturity 
succeeding each other through the logical sequence of 
events. There is nothing as yet perfect in this world. 
We advance and go backward, then again forward, eVer 
swaying hither and thither, but, like the encroaching 
waves of the ocean, sweeping further inward with every 
recurring tide. A human life of fifty or more years wit- 
nesses many and wonderful changes, but they glide by us 
almost imperceptibly with the passing of the hours. It is 
only as we turn the searchlight of the present backward 



6 Annual Sermon by Rev. John W. Sayers, Chaplain 

into history that we realize how far we have come and 
how much we have accomplished. 

I am standing to-night face to face with men who, 
within the past thirty-five )'ears, have lived through the 
experiences which confirm the truth of what I have said. 

Again look back ; calm skies, peaceful homes, a pros- 
perous country, a growing nationality with a hopeful 
future, unclouded, save by the fact that, in the most 
lovely section of the land, human slavery was made, by 
the law, to contribute to the individual wealth of the 
owner. The wise, the humane, and the patriotic men of 
the nation advocated freedom for all, without distinction 
of color, one flag for all, one principle for all, under the 
provisions of a Constitution which declared in its pre- 
amble that it was made to " secure the blessings of liberty 
to us and to our posterity." Then the yoke of thraldom 
was upon the neck of the black man, then the shackles 
were upon his limbs, and the fetters upon his heart, while 
the cruel lash of the task-master's whip drew blood at 
every stroke, and this in a land boasting of liberty, and 
among a people inviting the down-trodden and oppressed 
of all nations to come and dwell with us, and enjoy the 
blessings of freedom. 

Need I recall these things? You listened to the earn- 
est controversy. You witnessed the growing desire for 
the emancipation of the bondman. You grew up in an 
atmosphere of pity and humanity, which wafted upon its 
zephyrs the spirit of '76 with the broad j)rinciples of the 
Declaration to the unrequited laborer of the South. You 
heard the muttering^s of dissent and the threats of resist- 



Dept. Pennsylvania, Grand Army of the Republic 7 

ance from the Southland, and, while )ou wished for a 
peaceful solution of the problem, you wondered if in your 
day it would ever be accomplished, and the stain of slavery 
be blotted from the page of our future history. And yet, 
as we review those times, now so far away, we remember, 
with gratitude to God, that for thirty-two years we have 
listened to the songs of jubilee from the old cabin, while 
the iron chains of bondage have l)een turned into the im- 
plements of husbandry, or have been left to rust in the 
furrows of the cotton-field and in the damps of the rice- 
swamp, where they fell at the sound of the great procla- 
mation of emancipation. 

So much for the past. The present is reaping a rich 
harvest from the seed then sown. A new order of things 
is slowly spreading through the South. The black mati 
is gradually developing his capacity for self-help. As 
new generations of the freedmen come upon the stage, 
and their intellects are vivified by the continued electric 
touch of freedom, and their lives are animated and in- 
spired by more liberal social environments, a new element 
will enter into our civilization. 

An old adage says that "A nation is not born in a day." 
But these changes which you have witnessed, and in 
which you have been the agents — conditions which your 
patriotism and valor have established for all time — have 
passed before you so rapidly and surely as to blend the 
past with the present, without the aid of prophecy or 
foresight. When the abolition of slavery was presented 
to your minds as a possibility, you did not think of blood- 
shed as a probability. You did not dream that your own 



8 Annual Sermon by Rev. John W. Sayers, Chaplain 

arm would carry the musket, and that you would per- 
sonally encounter the privations and share the danglers 
of a long campaign, or that you should ever assist in 
making the mightiest history that the world has ever 
recorded. Look back to-night, if you will, and see even 
with the stirring events around yon and your personal 
contact with the facts at the time of their occurrence, 
whether you were not looking at things through an 
imperfect medium. You see them now, looking back- 
ward, much clearer than you saw them then. 

The world has not always moved as rapidly as it has 
moved in our own history, for political progress is pro- 
verbially slow. Progress in science and art is slow be- 
cause they are evolved from peaceful life, and do not 
depend upon physical forces for their acceleration. We 
look upon the mighty achievements in which the present 
rejoices without giving much thought as to how they 
were brought about through the tardy processes of the 
past. Nearly one hundred and fifty years ago Benjamin 
Franklin, by a simple experiment, discovered the identity 
of lightning with the electric fluid. Tremendous as was 
its importance, the discoverer but saw through a glass 
darkly, and the scientific world saw not more clearly. 
Nearly ninety years passed, and electric science had ad- 
vanced only to the production of a few scientific toys 
with which to illustrate some interesting philosophical 
experiments in the lecture room. Forty-three years ago 
Motse constructed the first electric telegraph of the world ; 
ailid, 'almost with the rapid flash of the subtle fluid, came 
disbovery and invention, until space has been annihilated 



Dept. Pennsylvania, Grand Army of the Republic 9 

and the world revolutionized by the multiplying con- 
trivances which minister to our use and comfort. We 
are overpowered as we stand in the midst of these won- 
ders and in our admiration exclaim, " What has God 
wrought ?" But so short-sighted is our vision, that to- 
morrow shall bring something still more wonderful, and 
the future will put to the blush all that tlie past has 
accomplished. 

Less than two hundred years ago Newcomen applied 
the expansive power of steam to the propulsion of ma- 
chinery. Watt improved upon his invention, while a 
thousand others have improved upon that of Watt. In 
our day steam power drives the vast machiner)- of the 
manufactories of all nations, while over the land and 
across the waters the obedient servants of the inventor's 
creation carry life and merchandise with great speed to 
the ends of the earth. All these things have passed 
raj^idly before our view almost unperceived, so imperfect 
is both our insight and our foresight. We only compre- 
hend them as we glance backward at the advancements 
which have been made. It is in vain that we wonder 
how the world did so long without the advantages with 
which we are blessed. It was because the world did 
not know the need, as we of the present do not know 
the need, of the hidden things of the future. The ac- 
tivities of to-day are the result of the impulses of yes- 
terday and will have their culmination to-morrow, while 
it is left for to-n)orrow to reveal to us what to-day has 
been. • ' 



lo Annual Sermon by Rev. John W. Sayers, Chaplain 

" The near and future blend in one, 
And whatsoe'er is willed is done." 

The past, the present and the fntnre all blend together in 
the complete picture. They form but one pathway lead- 
ing from earth to Heaven. The light rises at one ex- 
treme, twilight is at the other, and the darkness is beyond. 
They are all one, while each is the interpreter of that 
which has gone before. The light accompanies us all 
the way through but our sight is not always receptive 
and clear. Our eyes are not opened to that which is 
before us. " The light shineth in the darkness, but the 
darkness comprehendeth it not." Such is human life ! 
Such is history ! Such is national existence ! 

Life is always a mystery. No astrologer may cast our 
horoscope. No one can foretell what the days shall bring 
forth. So the human life is a logical existence, but it 
may be lived in a very illogical way. It belongs to 
God, but it is too often treated as a thing of little value, 
for which we are never to account. Christ has assured 
us " that for every idle word that men shall speak, they 
shall give an account in the Day of Judgment." Child- 
hood is properly occupied with childish thoughts and 
pleased with childish things. Manhood is for action and 
for the graver thoughts and nobler deeds which expe- 
rience brings with our years and which society has a 
right to demand from us. Age is for contemplation 
and counsel. Childhood is the basis upon which we 
build. We are not to forget its thoughts, its pleasures 
or its sorrows. They are always to us lessons of wis- 
4on}, but in manhood we put away childish iuethod§ 



Dept. Pennsylvania, Grand Army of the Republic ir 

of thought and act from motives matured b}- experi- 
ence. In age we should neither forget our childhood 
nor our manhood, but should become as good fruit 
ripened for the Master's use. If, unfortunately, in our 
maturer years we are pleased only with childish things, 
then are we but triflers and shall onl\- know in part, 
and shall not know as we are known. 

Do you remember how General Grant, in the midst 
of the turmoil of war, never forgot his home nor the 
loves that gathered round his fireside ? Helpless women 
or desolated homes along his line of march never claimed 
his protection in vain. Little children always af«ak- 
ened in him the tenderness of the father,, and the great 
warrior was none the less great when he took the chil- 
dren of the enemy's land to his knee or pressed the 
babe of his childhood to his bosom. The tears that at 
such times often suffused his eyes were never tears of 
weakness, but were the overflow of a brave soul allow- 
ing the nobler sympathies of his nature to triumph over 
the stern duties of the seldier. He had put away child- 
ish things, but he had not forgotton the childhood that 
had laid the foundation for his mature life. And so, in 
his command, many a brave soldier made himself none the 
less brave because he looked back with tender thoughts 
for the wife and babes in the home which he had left to do 
manly service for his country. The future before him was 
always uncertain and shadowy, but hope illumined his 
path as his longing heart went out to his loved ones as 
he looked backward to the time when they parted, and 
forward to the wished-for re-union. " Then " and " now " 



12 Annual Sermon by Rev. John W. Sayers, Chaplain 

were the moving forces of his thoughts, and nerved his 
arm to strike a harder blow at disunion, as he looked 
forward to strike sturdy blows for peace and the Consti- 
tntion, when the old flag should triumph over wrong 
and wave its folds again over the right. The light of 
the past has enabled him, in times of peace, to do valiant 
service for fireside and the Union, in the ranks of the 
Grand Army of the Republic, who celebrate these memo- 
rial services in the commemoration of the heroic dead 
who gave their lives to preserve an imdivided Union. 

How faintly all this was foreshadowed in the years of 
campaigning and fighting from 1861 to 1865. To-day 
we look back and the incidents, the thrilling scenes, the 
remarkable events through which we have passed seem 
to outrival the incredible stories of romance. 

On the Christmas Day of 1862, when our troops were 
opposite Fredericksburg, a rebel picket from the other 
side of the river called to the Union picket, asking if he 
would be permitted to return if he came over. " Yes," 
said our boy in blue, and the rebel came. "Who are 
you?" was asked. "I belong to the Georgia legion," 
was the answer. Said one of the Union soldiers, " I met 
a number of your boys at South Mountain." "Yes," 
said the rebel, "I suppose that is so, if you were there." 
A shadow of sadness passed over his face as he remarked, 
"We left very many of our boys at South Mountain. 
Poor Will, my brother, was killed there. It was a hot 
place and we had to leave in a hurry."' " That's so, 
Georgia," was the reply, " you fellows fought well and 
had all the advantage, but the old Keystone boys pressed 



bept. Pennsylvania, Grand Army of the Republic 13 

you hard. By the way, here is a likeness I picked up 
upon the battle-field the next morning, and have carried 
it ever since." The rebel took it, looked at it, and in- 
stantly pressed it to his lips, exclaiming, " Mother ! O 
my mother !" When regaining his composure, he said, 
" Brother Will carried it and must have dropped it in 
the fight." He asked the name of the one who restored 
to him so precious a gift, saying, " There may be peace 
soon and we may know each other better." He had 
taken from his pocket a small Bible to write upon the 
fly leaf the name of his new acquaintance, when one who 
had taken no part in the conversation cried out, " I know 
that Book ; I lost it at Bull Run." " That's where I got 
it," said the rebel, who at once handed it to the rightful 
owner. Two years before it had been a Christmas gift 
from a friend, whose name was written upon the blank 
leaf, and was now, on Christmas Day, restored as a gift 
doubly precious. The rebel returned to his post to reflect 
upon the mysteries which obscure our march in the battle 
of life and the providences which shape our destinies and 
guide us through the darkness. 

" In this sign we conquer; 'tis the symbol of our faith 
Made holy by the light of love, triumphant over death. 
He finds his life who loseth it ; forever more it saith, 
The right is marching on." 

During the war with Mexico two young officers fought 
bravely in the United States Army. Both were graduates 
of West Point, and both were in the line of promotion. 
Seven years before the Rebellion broke out one had re- 
tired to private life, while the other remained with the 
army, and was still rising, with the prospect of high 



i4 Annual Sermon by Rev. John W. Sayers, Chaplain 

rank. To the one the future was obscure and unin- 
viting, while the course of the other was full of ex- 
pectation. Whatever the difference in their condition, 
each saw through a glass darkly. When the Rebellion 
came the soldier who had everything to hope for deserted 
his country's cause, and, to his shame, enlisted in the 
ranks of the -enemy. The retired officer, without pros- 
pects, asked but for an humble position in his country's 
ser\dce. In 1863, as Generals commanding upon oppo- 
site sides, they met at Vicksburg, the one a conquering 
hero, loved and honored by his country, and destined to 
have his name enrolled at the topmost line upon the 
scroll of fame ; the other, a defeated commander, offering 
his sword in surrender to his unassuming comrade of the 
Mexican war— General Grant, the hero ; General Pember- 
ton, the rebel. Probably the life of General Grant will 
afford the best illustration of the text that I can give. 
All the way through life he saw through a glass darkly. 
He was clear-headed, far-seeing and quick-witted as a 
military commander. Unequalled in his judgment in the 
field, and unsurpassed in the coolness of his courage, he 
was not the child of destiny, like Napoleon, but was the 
child of an unerring Providence who opened the way 
before him. In his individual life there was but little 
forecast of what would follow next. The humble cabin 
in which he was born indicated a quiet agricultural life. 
His limited opportunities for early education were not 
favorable to a literary career. His distaste, even at West 
Point, for a military life, did not point to the future sol- 
dier. The breaking out of the Mexican w^ar probably 



Dept. Pennsylvania, Grand Army of the Republic ic 

formed the turning point of his life. His withdrawal from 
the service and his return to farming seemed to change 
the current until the breaking out of the Rebellion in- 
duced his return to the military life. Promotion quickly 
followed until he became Commander-in-Chief, and upon 
the return of peace lie became the President of the Repub- 
lic that his orenius and courage had saved. Events had 
shaped his course and Providence had taken care of re- 
sults. No man ever looked forward with more obscured 
vision ; none ever looked backward with clearer percep- 
tion and greater gratitude than he upon actions and 
achievements whose 1-esults and accomplishments had not 
always been clear before him. History is but the record 
of events which developed and matured, as the seed 
dropped into congenial soil, under favorable conditions, 
germinates, grows and produces fruit. The actors in all 
these events saw but dimly into the future. 

Civilizations, ancient and modern, as they looked for- 
ward, have always stretched their course along lines tem- 
porarily practical and seemingly permanent ; but as we, 
of to-day, trace these lines backward, we read, as we run, 
the hand-writing which tells only of an ephemeral race, 
building upon insecure foundations, while idly dreaming 
that their work would never perish. 

Along the old lines of overland commerce, wealth con- 
centrated at advantageous centres and there built great 
and magnificent cities. Even while the shapely marble 
column, in its newness, glistened in the rising sun, and 
foundations solid as the rock were being laid for new tem- 
ples, the fearless navigator was opening new and shorter 



i6 Annual Sermon by Rev. John W. Sayers, Chaplain 

highways across the sea. The land was deserted for the 
new paths and the great cities were deserted and began to 
fall into ruins. Mighty principalities had sprung up, and, 
through increasing power, had become the rulers and 
arbiters of the world. Environments changed while power 
and pride succumbed to newly-developed forces, while 
nations, once powerful and great, became but dependen- 
cies to their stronger neighbors. We contemplate the 
downfall with sad wonder but see only in retrospect the 
weaknesses which brought ruin but which foresight never 
could have discovered. These lessons always impress, but 
rarely instruct us. Our own American civilization is an 
example in point. Our progress is greater than our know- 
ledge of our needs. We are pressing blindly into the 
future without guarding the dangerous places we have 
discovered in our march. We are leaving enemies at 
important points, where mischief is brewing, waiting its 
opportunities for harm. Our national history is too glo- 
rious and bright to have it marred by the agitation of 
disloyal men and women ; it is too sacred to have it over- 
shadowed by a traitor's flag, where no stars glitter, and 
where its bars speak only of shame. If we cannot see 
what is before us, let us guard our institutions with all the 
jealous care of men who will maintain their integrity, or 
die for their honor. Four hundred years ago Columbus 
sailed bravely into the West to find the shores of India. 
He was not looking for a New World, or a new continent. 
He found land, but died without a knowledge of the mag- 
nitude of the work he had accomplished. England colo- 
nized the newly-discovered land for the enlargement of 



Dept. Pennsylvania, Grand Army of the Republic 17 

her borders, without knowing that out of this colonization 
and out of her laws and previous history was to grow up 
in the future an independent power, destined to demon- 
strate to the world the ability of the masses for self-gov- 
ernment. American independence was not the outgrowth 
of well-matured plans, but was the result, without the in- 
tention, of resistance to unjust and oppressive exactions. 
Our Constitutional form of government was not the origi- 
nal plan proposed by the Colonies. Not until the Con- 
federation had failed did we become a nation in any 
proper form of construction. Our fathers saw through a 
glass darkly, while an over-ruling providence guided them 
and their children through the dangers of darkness which 
tliey did not comprehend. Look back again for half a 
century and mark how confident we then were in our 
stability and strength. Slavery existed as a blot upon our 
national character. Resting upon the Missouri Compro- 
mise the North believed that slavery would be confined 
forever to the South, and that, sometime in the future, a 
peaceful solution of the problem of the abolition would be 
reached. We but looked into the future through a delu- 
sive medium, and deceived ourselves into the belief that 
we were in no danger, while beneath our feet the smoth- 
ered fires of a volcano were ready to burst. 

At the adoption of the Missouri Compromise a member 
from vSouth Carolina had said that " a fire had been kin- 
dled which all the waves of the ocean cannot put out, and 
which only seas of blood can put out," a prophecy recalled 
only when the admission of Texas and the War with 
Mexico brought to our ears the rumbling of the sleeping 
volcano. The Compromise Measure of 1850 again drew 
the veil over our eyes, and we treated our fears as phan- 



i8 Annual Sermon by Rev. John W. Sayers, Chaplain 

toms of the imagination. The creation of the Territories 
of Kansas and Nebraska in 1854, with the nullification of 
the Missouri Compromise, again excited the country, and 
raised the danger signal. And when Robert Toombs, of 
Georgia, declared that " he would yet call the roll of his 
slaves on Bunker Hill," the eyes of the advocates of free- 
dom were opened to the gravity of the situation, and the 
country was truly alarmed. 

The threatening events of the past scarcely seemed t® 
remove the mists through which we viewed the future. 
Not until the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency 
an^ the admission ot Kansas to the Union of the States 
did the danger culminate. Then,- looking backward, we 
saw the uncertainty of the way through which we had 
come. As representatives of the Grand Army, we can now 
look back and see that through the whole conflict of the 
Rebellion, from the first call for volunteers down to the 
close of the war, and from that to the present, we only saw 
through an obscured medium. Time, the interpreter of 
the past, has alone translated to us the meaning of many 
things which then seemed clear to us, but which, after all, 
we imperfectly understood. 

You remember well the history as it now passes in re- 
view before us. You saw the war-cloud as it rolled threat- 
eningly up from the South. You heard the trumpet call 
to arms and bravely responded to the call. Draw, if you 
will, the contrast between the excitement and turmoil of 
then and the peace and rest of to-day. For four long 
years there were earnest gatherings and sad departings and 
hurryings to and fro. All through the North, from East 
to West, the air was thrilled with the stirring strains of 
martial music. Our streets were thronged with the march- 



Dept. Pennsylvania, Grand Army of the Republic 19 

ing of armed battalions. The earth shook with the thun- 
dering- of artillery and the roar of battle. The nights 
gathered around us in darkness and gloom as the stern 
exigencies of battles fought had desolated firesides and 
homes. The mornings brought only sad rejoicings as vic- 
tory proclaimed the triumph of our arms. 

Down the Mississippi to New Orleans, across the States 
from the Mississippi to Atlanta, and from Atlanta to the 
sea, from Atlanta North and from Washington vSouth, 
surged the tide of battle until the arms of the Rebellion 
were grounded at Appomattox, and the war was over. 
We saw those four years of war only through shadows and 
clouds. The South had taken up arms to preserve an 
institution which its very act was to destroy. The North 
entered upon the defence not to destroy slavery but to pre- • 
serve the Union and to maintain the integrity of the old 
flag, with the number of its stars undiminished and its 
stripes unstained with disloyalty. God was with us, and 

stood 

" Stood within tiie shadow, 
Keeping watch above His own." 

In God's keeping the right always triumphs. 

In 1863 Mr. Lincoln issued the glorious Proclamation of 
Emancipation. It seems that Providence had waited for 
this most important and decisive action upon the part of 
the Executive. It was life to the Union and death to the 
Rebellion. With it the Southern dream of a proud em- 
pire, reared upon the unrequited toil of an enslaved race, 
vanished forever. The stars upon our flag grew brighter 
as Freedom's standard bearer raised it high above the 
smoke of battle, and carried it into the hottest of the fight, 
and to victory. The war is long since over and years of 
prosperity and peace have passed between the surrender 
and to-day. We read backward through the pages of his- 



20 Annual Sermon by Rev. John W. Sayers, Chaplain 

tory, and learn the providences which its passing^ events 
could not have revealed to ns. 

" We see dimly in the present, 

What is small and what is great, 
Slow of faith, how weak an arm 
May turn the iron helm of fate." 

We see face to face to-night as we recount the struggle, 
the cessation of strife and the years of peace which have 
followed. We rejoice again, as we think of the greetings 
of loved ones from whom the war had separated us, and to 
whom a mercifiul Providence restored us. We rejoice in 
the organization of the Grand Army of the Republic, 
whose comradeships keep the traditions of the conflict 
fresh in memory, and whose post rooms are the pleasant 
refuges of loyal companionship. Memorial Day recalls to 
us the days when those who now lie sleeping in their 
graves marched shoulder to shoulder into the battle. We 
gather at their graves, and rehearse their heroic deeds, as 
we drop tears and strew sweet flowers above them in re- 
membrance of what they did and how they died for their 
country. We bow in grateful remembrance of those who 
fell and in profound thankfulness for the lives that are 
spared. 

Dr. Hillis has said beautifully : 

" To sound of fife and drum they marched away, these 
loved and loving fathers, brothers, lovers, friends, soon to 
return again, they said, when we have freed God's children 
and made our country one again. But their good Father, 
God, planned better for them than they knew. Theirs the 
martyr's death, theirs the patriot's crown, striking chains 
from fettered slaves. God freed them from the fleshly 
bond. Seeking to keep their country one, God brought 



Dept, Pennsylvania, Grand Army of the Republic 21 

them to His eternal city, for they had fought a grood fight, 
and though lost to sight, they still to men are dear. To- 
day the magic wand of memory hath brought their names 
and faces back to us, but their graves we never shall strew 
with sweet and silent tokens of our grief. ' No man 
knoweth their sepulchre.' Under scorching summer skies, 
overcome with heat, some fell naked and starving ; some 
died in prisons damp and deadly ; under smoking sulphur- 
ous clouds, that seemed to rain on their devoted heads, the 
hissing shot and shell ; most fell on bloody battlefields, 
now hallowed b}' their graves. And so we know where 
some do lie, and yearly decorate their graves ; and some 
their final resting-place we know not of. But who shall 
say that He who clothes His lilies doth not mark His sol- 
diers' graves ? In God's deep glens and forest sides they 
lie. Their graves are strewn with grasses green, each one 
with flowers gay. Each purpling summer day God's cling- 
ing vines fall over them, and when the Autumn's frost 
hath splashed the leaves with blood and gold, the forest 
trees then drop their wreaths of softest leaves upon their 
billowy graves, while to the music of God's winds the 
weeping vines, the sobbing vines, the mournful elms, 
sound out their solemn funeral requiem. There let God's 
heroes lie till the last trump shall sound." 

The past has gone forever and will not return. Its les- 
sons remain for our profit as history tells the story. The 
present is with us for our improvement by applying the 
lessons that the past has imparted to us. The future is 
before us waiting our legacy of blessings, though we see 
into its coming days '' through a glass darkly." What 
shall be the harvest? For a hundred and twenty-one 
years we have progressed with rapid steps in the formation 



22 Annual Sermon by Rev. John W. Sayers, Chaplain 

and development of a nationality based upon the ability of 
the masses for self government. We have encountered 
obstacles and overcome them. We have seen dangers 
ahead and escaped them. We have been assailed at vital 
points, but have successfully resisted encroachment and 
triumphed. We now look into the future hopefully, but 
not without misgivings. The question that confronts us 
is " Shall our Republican institutions continue long, or 
shall they fail ?" There are dangers all around us — dan- 
gers from without and within. Can we in the future with- 
stand and overcome these dangers as we have overcome 
them in the past ? 

Governments have lived for a thousand years, and have 
then gone down in the storms of human passion. Others 
have met with a similar fate in a much shorter period. 
Our form of government is but an experiment. Local 
interests and sectional jealousies are striving for the mas- 
tery, seeking to control the legislation of the country in 
their interests. Wealth is using its vast influence and 
power for oppression, corruption and greed. Party spirit 
resorts to dishonesty and the contravention of the ballot. 
Centralization aims by its power to hold the weaker ele-^ 
ment in abject subjection. Our legislatures and our courts 
of justice, our law-makers and our judges, bow at the 
shrine of local politics, and worship the leaders who hold 
in their hands the key to office. These are manifestations 
of weakness which, if not counteracted by the patriotism 
of the land, will eventually end in disaster to our institu- 
tions. 

The Grand Army has taught a broader lesson of fealty. 
The very spirit of our loyal dead rises up in judgment 
against whatever would break down our Constitution, dis- 



Dept. Pennsylvania, Grand Army of the Republic 23 

sever our Union, or destroy our nationality. If it was a 
country worth living for when the Constitution was under- 
going its severest trial ; if it was worth dying for when 
armed rebellion threatened a severance of its union, it is 
worth saving now that it is great, respected and prosper- 
ous. In the midst of our sorrow for our dead, and in their 
glorious memories, we look for the integrity of all that 
they fought for. We look from the mounds underneath 
which they sleep, up to the flag for which they died, and 
from that beloved standard we look to the God of battles, 
praying that into His keeping shall be committed the in- 
terests of the nation and the welfare of humanity which 
our institutions represent. 

As we have been true to our flag, and loyal to our coun- 
try, let us be loyal and true to the Almighty Leader of the 
hosts of riofhteousness, so that when we stand face to face 
with his judgments, we shall know even as we are known. 
He still calls us to battle for the right, and 

" Has sounded forth His trumpet that 

Shall never call retreat ; 
He is sifting out the hearts of men 

Before His mercy seat ; 
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him, 

Be iubilant, my feet ; 

Our God is marching on." 












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